Progressives Put Spotlight on Shadowy Conservative Group

You’ve probably never heard of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), but one of its biggest accomplishments has been in the news lately: so-called “Stand Your Ground” laws that encourage people like Trayvon Martin’s killer George Zimmerman to shoot first and ask questions later. ALEC is also responsible for the nationwide conservative campaign to suppress votes — particularly if those votes happen to come from students, communities of color, and others who might not be amenable to the agenda of conservatives or corporate special interests.

How does ALEC work?

ALEC allows its corporate sponsors to propose so-called model bills on a wide variety of issues. Are you a polluter and worried that too many people in a community might vote for tighter clean air rules? All you have to do is give ALEC some money and you can write one bill that will loosen existing rules on polluters and another one that will make it harder for people in that same community to vote in the first place. Win-win for corporate special interests. Lose-lose for that community — and our democracy.

Once corporations write their bills, then ALEC distributes them through its other members: state legislators across the country. These state legislators then dutifully introduce the bills, many of which then ultimately become law. Since Republicans took over multiple state legislatures in 2010, ALEC’s success rate has been particularly high.

Model legislation proposed by ALEC has been a key factor in the wave of voter suppression laws both introduced and passed in the last year in states as diverse as Texas, Wisconsin, and Florida. Conservatives are using a variety of tactics to suppress the vote:

Laws that make it all but impossible for mass voter registration drives to occur

Taken together, these measures sweeping the states stand to disenfranchise millions of Americans.

For much, much more information on the nationwide conservative voter suppression campaign please check Voter Suppression 101, a new report released earlier this week by the Center for American Progress.

Following these impressive victories against the conservative voter suppression machine, Color of Change plans to announce new corporate targets next week.

IN ONE SENTENCE: Reforms to make voting easier were working and it’s clear that the conservative campaign to suppress the vote has nothing to do with the non-problem of voter fraud and everything to do with preventing millions of Americans from casting ballots this fall.